8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold—which they used for Baal.
Hosea 2:8 (NIV)
When I was in the 5th grade we went on a school field trip. I was given some spending money for meals and souvenirs. Having my own money made me feel so mature. But what I did with “my money” wasn’t mature at all. All my money went to souvenirs and nothing was left for food. "What did I buy?" you ask. I had a new earthly “god” at the time--baseball cards. All my money went to baseball cards and none went to food. And as you can imagine when it was time to eat all I had was the gum that came with my cards. Not a very filling meal.
Let me give you an idea of what God is saying here in Hosea 2:8: You take My gifts, which you’ve given credit to your idols for giving you, and you give them back to your idols.
How do you spend what God has given you? We sometimes have the mindset: “It’s my money. I worked hard for it. I can do whatever I want to do with it. I give my tithe. That gets God off my back. The rest is mine to do whatever I want.” That’s not true. Let me remind you that we are stewards and not owners. What does that mean? All we have belongs to Someone else. And it matters to Him how we handle His resources. And He especially doesn’t want us using our money to “worship” other idols.
Questions to consider:
What are some “idols” that we might spend God’s resources on?
Why doesn’t God want us spending His resources on idols?
What makes us think we can spend God’s resources on whatever we want?
What is hard about seeing ourselves as stewards and not owners?
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